NEW BEDFORD — The news hit like a bomb — after weeks of protest, hundreds of part-time employees at the city Market Basket were going to be out of work.

It was a blow to everyone involved. But it was especially hard for Carolina Perez, 15, and six other family members, all employed at Market Basket.

"This job meant a lot for me," said the 15-year-old city resident. "It was my first job."

Sitting on the coach of the three-family house on Collette Street, her mom and dad at her side, Perez said even after the protests over the ouster of CEO Arthur T. Demoulas began, she didn't miss a day.

"I thought I was doing the right thing, that we were standing for what we believed in, because a lot of people worked there, and we tried our best to keep the company the way it was before."

Perez belongs to a large family of Salvadoran immigrants, nine of whom are employees at the New Bedford Market Basket. Of the nine, seven were laid off Thursday, while two are full-time and will continue working.

"What does Market Basket mean to me?" Perez said. "It's a symbol of family, of brotherhood."

Perez, 34, was promoted to full-time in May. It meant health benefits for the whole family, a raise from $8.75 to $10.50 an hour, guaranteed full-time hours and bigger bonuses. It was something he didn't think he was capable of. But now, just three months later, things are falling apart.

Although the full-timers will continue working full-time hours, Perez said they were advised to start looking for work — that they might have only jobs for another week or two.

Perez' wife, Miriam Marlene Melara, has found herself looking to the heavens.

"My family depended on it," said Melara, a mother of two. "Our food. The household bills. For me, Market Basket is everything, after God."

The problems don't end with this New Bedford family. Their relatives back in El Salvador could also feel the hit.

Husband and wife Mario Nataren and Jessika Melara said they send money to four people back home. With a slash in their household income — Nataren is full-time while Melara was laid off — they don't know if that can continue.

"With the end of the month coming we're already asking ourselves what we're going to do about the rent, with the bills that will arrive," Melara said. "If we don't have my check anymore — it was my check we always saved to pay the bills at the end of the month."

Earning $8.75 an hour, working at Market Basket meant more than money for Melara. After working in fish factories, she said the supermarket was like no work at all.

"It's not the kind of job where you arrive and think, 'Oh God, another day at work.' No. It was a job where you know your co-workers and you even come to miss being with them."

"You walk in and (the managers) greet you. 'How are you? You're doing a good job.' There's peace there, and it's nice to feel that at work."

Mario Nataren started working at the store part-time a year and a half ago while working at a scallop factory. He left the scallop shop when they made him full-time at Market Basket in May, at the same time as his brother-in-law Oscar Perez. When another brother-in-law was hired, Nataren said he approached the manager to express his gratitude.

"He shook my hand, squeezed it, and said, 'Mario, all of us are family. I'm your family. All the managers are your family.'"

Store manager Bill Clark said Oscar Perez and Mario Nataren are some of his best employees, giving 100 percent at every shift.

"They actually had me in tears up in my office the other day, just how passionate they are about our company," Clark said.

With signs of progress late Friday among Market Basket's directors, Clark said none of the workers is gone for good.

"I'm hoping that Arthur T. comes back to solve the problem," he said. "If he came right back, in a matter of minutes this whole thing would be turned around."